Back in the 50's, when I was a lad, we had three rail lines running just beyond the end of our back yard...(We kids used to sit in our cherry tree eating cherries and waving at the people just six feet away in their coach cars)...
We also used to put pennies, nickels, bottlecaps etc on the tracks to flatten them out...make necklaces out of them...
We got caught...railroad detectives at the back door...You'll derail a train doing that!...Do it again and go to jail!...
We stopped...
One day, a concrete mixer stalled on the farthest rail line, on the crossroads...It was full of fresh concrete...train couldn't stop...Hit the truck and pushed it about 100 yards down the track...the spilled concrete was there for another 20 years, at least (they drained it to get the wreckage out)...they took out the rail lines and put in an expressway while I was overseas...
...Didn't hurt the train much at all, IIRC...
